Schools should fail students earlier than high school.
School is a place where people are supposed to learn how to do things and succeed. But I’ve found that the school system itself is a bit of a wreck. Not many people are prepared for life after school.
I’ve known people who only just made it through to high school because they weren’t allowed to stay behind. They either didn’t understand the material that was taught to them or they just wouldn’t do the work.
Unfortunately, if you don’t do well, you don’t stay in a grade until you know what you need to know. A good example of this is math—many people have a hard time with it. I’ve always had a hard time with math. But they push us through anyway.
To be honest, I should not have passed Grade 6. The only reason I did was because I passed some of the courses. My Grade 6 teacher got me help in that year and was the reason I made it to high school.
Most people don’t know what it’s like to fail classes until they reach high school, and by that point the impact is larger than it would have been when we were younger.
Now, I don’t always agree with holding young students back. I do agree that it’s not easy being in a class with people of a different age. And while there are different circumstances for different people, that doesn’t mean that a school should teach a student until they are able to understand, no matter how long it takes.
There are a lot of people in the past five or so generations that have graduated who have benefited more from a specialized curriculum. Or, to be more accurate, they’ve worked at a different pace.
My high school only required me to fill out a physical activity log, complete a course on planning, and not get under 50 percent on my grades. So, basically, just pass. They didn’t make me work hard to graduate, nor did they get me ready for real life.
I know seven people who either didn’t finish high school or had to graduate “late.” I do believe that if at least half of them were held back a grade and told that it wasn’t the end of the world, well, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, because they could have learned what the teachers were wanting to teach.
That course about planning was a requirement in my high school, and it was also one of the most failed classes. This class was basically several different classes merged into one. Overall, it was not a bad idea to have it set up this way, but why did people fail it? Because there was so much crammed into a one-semester class. I don’t remember much, if anything, from that course. This is one reason why schools should be able to fail students earlier in their school career: to make sure they actually learn what they need to.